David Love: For AIPAC, the American neocons, and the Christian evangelical Zionists waiting for the rapture to begin, Netanyahu was a big hit in Congress. But his oratorical victory was a diplomatic failure.

Lee Fang: With Republicans lining up to kiss Reed’s ring this weekend, they cannot divorce their appearance at the event with Reed’s lobbying interests. Even Reed doesn’t bother concealing the connection — his Faith and Freedom Coalition is housed in the same office as his lobbying firm.

Robert Illes: Grover Norquist, toady of America’s wealthy business class who few but political wonks have heard of, heads the so called “Club for Growth” which requires every Republican who wants to keep his or her government job to promise not to raise taxes.

Jerry Drucker: All GOP robot models are programmed with specific daily attack/talking points and are preset to be repeated endlessly, often using the very same Frank Luntz power point words of the talking points.

Georgianne Nienaber: If USAID wanted to slap down the new Haitian government for criticizing the Clinton IRHC, the BARR report would do the job nicely. Play down the death toll and the need for reconstruction and send a message that Haiti must still play by colonialist US rules.

Gareth Porter: Senior Obama administration officials hope to use the talks to sow suspicion between the Taliban and their main ally, thus weakening the Taliban resolve to negotiate on a peace settlement only if the United States offers a timetable for troop withdrawal.

Tina Dupuy: “The rich create jobs” is a well-worn catch phrase from right-leaning political yappers who give this 1% all the credit when it comes to the financial health of the country. But the rich are not, in fact, the venerated “job creators.”

Ira Chernus: Obama shows no inclination to back his words with the power the U.S. government could wield. Until he does, those words won’t provoke any change in Israel’s domination of the Palestinians.

Diane Lefer: The Uribe administration seemed more interested in catering to foreign investors than in protecting the environment. Under Santos, there are signs of change but this welcome shift is threatened by passage of the FTA.

Andrea Nill: Obama always made clear that immigration reform stood in a line with health care reform, energy legislation, and financial regulatory changes and that at least a few Republicans are needed to pass a bill.

LGBT Rights

Irene Monroe: Long before June officially became Gay Pride Month, and October “Coming Out Month” for the LGBTQ community, Halloween was unofficially our yearly celebrated “holiday,” dating as far back at the 1970s when it was a massive annual street party in San Francisco’s Castro district.

The Middle East

Richard Greeman: Anti-government demonstrations spread across Morocco after social media spread the story of Mousine Fikri, a fishmonger crushed to death inside a garbage truck as he tried to block the destruction of a truckload of his fish confiscated by police.